The Layers tab in the Visual editor is useful for identifying elements in your layout and accessing them via a hierarchy that shows their relationship to each other. Using the Layers tab you can achieve the following:
- Identify any parent-child relationships between elements.
- Troubleshoot layout issues.
- Drag and drop elements for precision placement.
- Add blocks directly from the Insert tab.
- Add, move, delete, and rename elements.
- See which layers have features such as an animation, action, data binding, or events.
- Search for something in Layers, such as some text, the type of element/block, or any name you gave the layer.
The following screenshot shows the Layers tab.
To rename a layer, open the Layers tab, double-click on the layer, and enter the new name. Name layers to represent what's inside to help you keep track of what each element does, and to find an element on a page if your page is long or complex. For long or complex pages, use the search to find layers by name or content.
👉 Tip: In the Layers tab, Symbols are shown in purple.
If an element has features such as an animation, action, binding, or event, it will feature an indicator icon, as in the following example:
The following video illustrates how the Layers tab indicates actions and events on a Layer. It also shows some of the available options for actions, events, and animations.
You can select a block on the Insert tab, drag it to the Layers tab, and drop it wherever you like among the other layers.
To nest the block, hover the block over where you'd like to place it. Blue lines appear to show you where you are placing the block and whether you're nesting it within another layer. If the new block is not where you want it, just drag it where it should be.
In the following video, the new Text block is nested inside the Columns block. You can test that by collapsing the Columns block and noting that the new Text block is then hidden in the list because it's inside the Columns block.
👉Tip: When you move a layer, you are changing the structure of your page. If an element inherits styles from its parent, and you move that layer out from under the parent, those parent styles no longer apply to that element.
If you accidentally move a layer, you can undo with Cmd+z on a Mac and Ctrl+z on a PC.
Now that you understand the power of Layers, you might want to check out the other concepts mentioned above, including:
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